Moncloa leaves Sanchez’s presence in the enthronement of Leo XIV

The Government has received with great satisfaction the choice of the new Pope Leo XIV, mainly because in Moncloa it is created by a pontiff totally Continuous with the stage of Pope Francispraised both by Pedro Sánchez and for his main ministers, including the second vice president and representative of adding in the coalition, Yolanda Díaz. However, You don’t want to confirm Even if the chief of the Executive will be in the Spanish delegation that will go to his enthronement, after he was absent from the one who attended the state funeral by Francisco held on April 26 in Rome. There were the kings at the head of the delegation, who had the head of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, and the first and second vice presidents, María Jesús Montero y Díaz, as well as the Minister of Justice, Presidency and Relations with the Cortes, Félix Bolaños.

The government, in any case, It could be welcomed to the two most immediate precedents To justify their decision, which are ambivalent. In 2013 Mariano Rajoy was in Francisco’s enthronement, but eight years before José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero did not attend Benedict XVI. Although in that year 2005 the previous socialist president did attend the funeral for John Paul II, a precedent that in this case did not mind breaking Sánchez last month.

As he did the same Thursday after the White Smoothie in the Vatican, Bolaños – the strong man of the cabinet and the most concerned in relations with the Holy See and with the Church in our country – praised Leon XIV yesterday, in an appearance before the media at the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, the Palacio de Parcent, in which he stressed that “those first words of Pope Leo XIV have a very special meaning, and they say a very special meaning. The way he wants to travel and for which he wants to walk with absolute respect, with absolute loyalty to the legacy of Pope Francis ». For Bolaños, «like everything in life, biography is also ideology. And of course, we have a Pope who has been a missionary in Peru. That he was born in the United States, but that he decided to go to one of the poorest areas of Latin America, to Peru, to work as a missionary for many years of his life, I think he also tells us something about the person of the new Pope, of Leo XIV, of his character without a doubt solidarity, without a doubt close to those who suffer, to those who have nothing. And that is why this government celebrates a lot that this is the main characteristic of Pope Leo XIV, ”he concluded. As if that were little, Bolaños revealed that he had been in contact with several Spanish cardinals who participated in the two days of conclave and that “there are some that are of course very happy with the appointment,” he said.

The new Holy See

On the other hand, the Executive maintains continuity with Pope Francis not only in the mood shown by Leo XIV or in his first speech, but in what could be his future appointments, still to be determined. Nobody can rule out continuity as number two in the Holy See of Cardinal Italian Pietro Parolin, who has held that position throughout Pedro Sánchez in the Government. On many occasions it has been the interlocutor with Madrid for issues related to both bilateral agreements and the relations of the State with the Church. Negotiations in which the singing voice, as always in this matter, has corresponded precisely to Bolaños. His continuity or permanence, therefore, would be well received news in government.

The Sánchez government, otherwise, already tried without success for Pope Francis to visit our country, as their two predecessors did. The last invitation was attended by the chief of the Executive at his October 2024 hearing in the Vatican, when he encouraged the Pontiff to visit the Canary Islands to meet first hand the situation of immigrants arriving at that autonomous community. That is why it is to imagine that time will be repeated, the same invitation to Leo XIV.

As for the open folder of pending issues, it highlights that related to the repair of victims of sexual abuse within the Church. An issue in which there have been strong discrepancies, such as when last year Bolaños rejected the Church’s repair plan.

Last March, during his speech before the Plenary Assembly of the Episcopal Conference, its President Luis Argüello, was willing to admit a supervision of the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo, in the repair process already activated by the Church. And promised to assume a “moral obligation” on cases even if there is no legal obligation over them.